Wetland Workshops For Teachers

November 11 & 12, 2011

Hosted at Watauga High School in Boone, NC
Workshop website: saerec.appstate.edu/outreach/events
Space limited; register online today!

ASU’s Southern Appalachian Environmental Research & Education Center (SAEREC) has invited staff of Environmental Concern Wetland Learning Center to lead two workshops on their award-winning wetlands curricula for formal and informal educators.

• Friday, November 11, 9 AM - 4 PM – WOW! The Wonders of Wetlands
  $45* includes WOW! curriculum and additional course materials
• Saturday, November 12, 9 AM - 3:30 PM – POW! The Planning of Wetlands
  $50* includes POW! curriculum and additional course materials

Registration required – click here to register (look under the November section of this site).
* Scholarships: ASU is sponsoring registration scholarships for a limited number of teachers, and we are fundraising to support additional scholarships. Interested teachers please contact Laura England at englandle@appstate.edu.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CREDITS

• Watauga County Schools will award CEU credits to teachers who complete these workshops. Teachers in other counties may check with their district office about receiving CEUs.  If you need documentation for this or otherwise need assistance getting confirmation of CEU credits from your school district, please contact Laura England at englandle@appstate.edu.
• Both WOW! and POW! are approved Criteria I Workshops for the North Carolina Environmental Education Certification Program. They can also be counted towards Criteria II or Criteria III if all Criteria I hours have been fulfilled.
   

PARTNERS & SPONSORS
SAEREC thanks the following partners for sponsoring registration scholarships for teachers: Research Institute for Environment, Energy and Economics, National Committee for the New River, Watauga River Partners

 

Sustainable Business Summit

Are you interested in

- Growing your business with sustainable business practices and principles?
- Exploring sustainable business opportunities?
- Sharing your sustainable business experiences and hearing those of others?
- Understanding how to use sustainable practices and products as a market differentiator for your business?

If you said “yes” to any of these, you need to attend! Come to get inspired and leave knowing what to do and how. The Summit features Dr. Pat Long Director of the Center for Sustainable Tourism at East Carolina University. The Sustainable Business Summit will be held on September 30, 2011 from 9:00 am to 2:30 pm at the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center.

The Intent of the Summit is to expose participants to the compelling opportunities and benefits of incorporating sustainability practices or products into their business models, offer opportunities to hear from and talk to local business leaders who are successfully incorporating sustainable products or practices in their businesses, provide opportunities for participants to learn how to make their sustainability initiative a market differentiator, provide “how to” information on how to incorporate sustainability practices in the everyday operations of a business, allow participants to network and meet other business leaders interested in or actively incorporating “green practices and products.

Pat Long is the Director at the Center for Sustainable Tourism at East Carolina University. He has extensive experience in grappling with the competing requirements of regional development and resource conservation. He comes to ECU from the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado at Boulder, where he established the nation's first sustainable tourism center. Long holds tenure in ECU's College of Business and applies a much-practiced interdisciplinary approach in guiding the development of a new MS degree offering in Sustainable Tourism, as well as directing the Center's plans for multi-campus partnerships. He served for a number of years as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Rural Tourism Foundation as well as President/CEO of that organization. His scholarly publications have appeared in Annals of Tourism, the Journal of Travel Research, the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, the Journal of Business Research and Tourism Management, among others.

The Agenda:

8:30 Registration
9:00 Welcome and Overview of the Day
9:15 Choosing Sustainable Business Practices – why it’s the “Smart Business Direction”
10:00 Networking Break
10:30 Panel Discussion - Sustainable Business Practitioners
Networking & Lunch with Panelists
1:00 Workshops
- Making Sustainability a Market Differentiator
- Sustainable Business basics -Green Business Plan Certification
2:30 Adjourn to Tours (Optional)

To Register:
Send name, email, phone number and address with registration fees to:
MountainKeepers, PO Box 21 DTS, Boone, NC 28607
Fees for the summit are $40.00 or $20 Members of MountainKeepers, $50 on 9/30/11
Register by 9/21/2011 to qualify for lunch, please let us know if you prefer a vegetarian option
Make Checks payable to: MountainKeepers

This Summit is presented by MountainKeepers, in partnership with the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce, Broyhill Inn and Conference Center, Center for Sustainable Tourism @ ECU, ASU Office of University Sustainability. For more information about MountainKeepers visit, www.mountainkeepers. Display Table Space is Available call 828-268-0637 or email summit@mountainkeepers.org

Nickels-For-KnowHow...Fertilizer Referendum Vote, November 16

A self-assessed, state-wide check-off that supports agricultural research, extension, and teaching programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at NC State University will be held Wednesday, November 16, 2011 subject to approval by the Board of Agriculture. Users of feed and fertilizer in North Carolina will vote on November 16 whether to continue the voluntary 15 cents per ton self-assessment on fertilizer and animal feed produced in our state. Since 1951, the Nickels check-off has been voted on every six years and has passed in the 13 previous referenda by an average 90% favorable vote.

Dean Johnny C. Wynne of CALS says: “Virtually every significant advancement in agriculture in the last 60 years has received Nickels funding at some point. Without Nickels, our College would not be able to serve the citizens of North Carolina as well as we do.”

In addition, Nickels for Know-How provides support for fund raising efforts in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences that generate over $20 million annually in private contributions. This is a $50 return on every $1 dollar invested. Some of the entities that Nickels provides support include the NC Cooperative Extension Service Foundation, the CALS Research Foundation, the NC 4-H Development Fund, the NC FFA Foundation, the NC Family & Consumer Sciences Foundation, and the NC Dairy Foundation. Voting will be held at the Watauga Cooperative Extension Center on Wednesday, November 16. For more information, you can contact Jim Hamilton @ 828.264.3061

Horse Show

Teens plan horse show

If you know any horse enthusiasts, you probably know that enthusiast is an understatement.  Horse lovers are passionate about horses in so many ways.  Jacqueline Walczak and Jazmyne Maxwell are carrying their passion for horses to a new level.  The two Watauga High students have avidly participated in horse show for years.   They have traveled across the state to participate in horse shows.  Several years ago, they participated in the local 4-H horse show.  With a gap of several years in that show, the teens saw many reasons to continue to have a local show and decided to do something about it.  They began initiating their vision for a local horse show to re-emerge.  Now, all their work and planning is coming to fruition.  The Blue Ridge Open Charity Horse Show will be held the weekend of September 24-25 at the Blowing Rock Equestrian Preserve.

The teens took the best from horse shows they had been to and created their own class list with different horse competitions.  The show is for all ages and abilities and is designed to be fun.  They also felt it important to donate proceeds to charity and have selected animal friendly charities to support.   They are eager to share the fun and enthusiasm with others.

To support or attend the show, visit their website or call Watauga County 4-H at 828-264-3061.  They are even on Facebook.  The date to pre-register is Friday, September 9, but participants may register the day of the event as well.  Pre-registration forms, manuals and more information are posted at http://bropencharityhorseshow.weebly.com/

Producer Grants to Further Sustainable Agriculture Now Available

Producer Grants to Further Sustainable Agriculture Now Available

GRIFFIN, Georgia – Calls for Proposals for the 2012 Producer Grants, intended for farmers/ranchers and farmer/rancher organizations throughout the Southern region, are now available from the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) program.

Proposal submission deadline is 11:59 Eastern Standard Time on Nov. 15, 2011.  Announcement of grants will take place in February 2012.

Producer Grants are used to conduct projects that solve problems farmers face and to develop information on what works and what doesn’t so that other farmers and ranchers facing those same problems can benefit from the results of the funded project. The grants are not designed to pay a farmer to farm. They are designed to take some of the financial risk away from trying a solution.

Projects may be funded for up to two years for a project maximum of $10,000 for an individual producer or $15,000 for a producer organization. Producer organizations should be comprised primarily of farmers/ranchers and must have a majority farmer representation on their governing board.

Log on to http://www.southernsare.org/Grants/Apply-for-a-Grant to download the current Calls for Proposal. The Calls for Proposal includes application information, program priorities, use of funds, proposal submission instructions, and contact information. Be sure to carefully follow the information in the Calls for Proposals when submitting your grant. Failure to follow the submission guidelines may result in your proposal being rejected.

Focus areas for Producer Grants include beneficial insect habitat, alternative crops/livestock, organic agriculture, sustainable marketing products, sustainable grazing systems, soil organic matter, building/protection/management, increasing sustainability of existing farming practices, appropriate technology and agroforestry/water quality.

SARE is a competitive grants program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to promote research and education about sustainable agriculture. Southern SARE is administered by a host consortium consisting of the University of Georgia, Fort Valley State University and the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Oklahoma.

For more information on Southern SARE, log on to http://www.southernsare.org, follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/southernsare, or fan us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/southsare.

Western NC Bio-energy Field Day

Event:             Western North Carolina Bioenergy Field Day

Date:               September 14, 2011
Time:               12:30 Registration, 1:00-5:00 Educational Presentations and Demonstrations
Contact:           Ron Gehl, ron_gehl@ncsu.edu, 828-684-3562 x129

North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services invite you to attend this event designed to provide a time for researchers to share the latest information of the work being conducted on energy crops in Western NC.  Tours of research plots and processing equipment demonstrations will help extension personnel, growers, researchers, and private industry learn how we are working to meet the state’s renewable fuels and energy goals of the future.  The afternoon event will cover topics including the science of cellulosic fuel production, production of energy grasses, cultural management of bioenergy crops, high-oil crops and biodiesel production, sorghum production for biofuels, breeding efforts  and genetic improvements of biomass crops, and short rotation woody biomass and southern hardwoods for bioenergy. Speakers include NC State University researchers in Soil Science, Horticultural Science, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, and Forestry and Environmental Resources.  Field demonstrations will include biomass pelleting, oilseed crushing and biodiesel production, and sorghum harvest, squeezing, and distillation.  The field day is free and open to the public.  For more information, please visit http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/events/2011-bioenergy-field-day/index.html or contact Ron Gehl at ron_gehl@ncsu.edu of 828-684-3562 x129.

Also, the Western NC State Fair will be going on that week, about 2 miles from the station, so you can make an afternoon and evening enjoying NC Agriculture!